Why did the Wild play a man short in their win in Montreal?

MONTREAL — If it looked like Wild players had a little extra elbow room on their bench Tuesday night at Bell Centre, that's because they did.

Although their 5-2 win over the Canadiens didn't show it, the Wild had one fewer player in action than normal because of a rash of injuries and shortage of salary cap space, which is an issue around the NHL.

They replenished their lineup before facing Los Angeles on Thursday at Xcel Energy Center, adding Sammy Walker from the minors with the cap relief they gained by moving Alex Goligoski to long-term injured reserve (LTIR), but a roster dilemma like this could happen again.

"It is what it is," coach Dean Evason said. "We've got to deal with it. We're not the only team in the league that's doing it. The cap situation and all of that is not us coaches' responsibility. So, we'll coach the team that we have."

Playing shorthanded was always a possibility for the Wild given the state of their finances.

They entered the season just shy of the $83.5 million salary cap, and their lack of flexibility has been apparent from the get-go. Not only did the team start with only 21 players on the roster, which is two below the limit, but they didn't immediately bolster their manpower after captain Jared Spurgeon suffered an upper-body injury in the preseason.

Part of the reason was the Wild still had enough defensemen available, but the more players on the roster, the less cap space they have and that makes a difference later in the season. The cost of contracts declines as they get paid out, so the Wild's spending power can actually increase in time. The less they're on the hook for now, the more they can afford later (i.e. at the trade deadline).

Eventually, the Wild ended up using some of their cap space to bring up defenseman Dakota Mermis from Iowa in the American Hockey League so they would be covered in the event of a last-minute illness on their recent Canadian road trip.

But it was a pair of injuries that made this personnel predicament pop up less than a week into their season.

Matt Boldy was hurt last Saturday at Toronto, the winger getting sidelined with an upper-body injury.

Although Boldy's absence dropped the team to 11 forwards, the Wild still had seven defensemen and therefore enough skaters (18) to complete their lineup against Montreal on Tuesday. That plan changed, however, after Goligoski sustained a lower-body injury at practice on Monday.

Had the team known the severity of Goligoski's injury earlier, the Wild could have assigned the defenseman to LTIR and tabbed a replacement from the AHL before puck drop. But without that knowledge and not enough salary cap space to make a call-up otherwise, they were forced to play a man short vs. the Canadiens.

On LTIR, Goligoski, who was spotted wearing a walking boot after Tuesday's game, will be out for at least 10 games and 24 days.

During that time, the Wild will have almost $2 million to apply to their roster; after Walker's addition, they're down to around $1 million. Walker, the Edina native and former Gopher, had a team-high 27 goals for Iowa last season and a goal and assist in nine games for the Wild.

Putting a player on LTIR means their salary no longer counts against the team's day-to-day cap while they're out, allowing the Wild to call up other players, but in order to accrue additional space in the future, the team's total salary including LTIR contracts can't go over the cap limit.

"I don't think we think too much about it," said Joel Eriksson Ek, who scored twice on the power play against Montreal. "Try to get the job done and just play for each other. That's what we always want to do."

The 11-6 formation the Wild iced on Tuesday, while once unconventional, is becoming more common in the NHL because of teams' cap constraints.

Already this season, the likes of Edmonton, Los Angeles and Vancouver have gone with this setup. According to salary-tracking website CapFriendly.com, nearly half the league currently has less than $1 million in cap space.

"It happens sometimes," Kirill Kaprizov said. "We try [not to] worry about it. Just play our game."